Been trying to come up with thoughts that strike the right balance in Pitt’s blowout of Gardner-Webb. All the good in the game has to be tempered by the opponent. At the same time, it seems negative to denigrate the performance too much merely because the opponent was so bad.

Let me get the one negative out of the way. With the exception of that huge hole they opened up for Ray Graham on his 78 yard TD run, the O-line was a big disappointment in run-blocking. The pass protection was solid, but the run-blocking looked more like it did against Youngstown State and Cinci. For most of the game, there was no place for the running backs to go in-between the tackles.

Yes, the running game piled up 229 yards, but take out the 78 yard run and the two “carries” for -4 yards by Sunseri and Pitt had 155 yards on 34 carries. That’s a respectable 4.7 yards per carry. Yet, looking closer shows that Pitt collected 73 yards (on 12 carries) in the 4th quarter with Isaac Bennett and Malcolm Crockett running to run out the clock. Did not having Fullback Mark Giubilato available for this game make that kind of difference?

When Graham and Rushel Shell were the primary ball carriers for the first 3 quarters, there was not a lot of yardage gained on the ground. The two had 135 yards on 21 carries, but 91 yards came on just two runs. Shell did not look as strong in the game. He wasn’t hitting the line with the same force he showed last Saturday.

And really, that’s about it.

The bright side to the running game and O-line is that they stayed healthy and did wear down the Bulldogs by the 4th quarter. Making all those runs by Bennett and Crockett possbile. And worth noting, even though Ray Graham fell a handful of yards short of the 100 yard mark for a second straight week, he is still on pace for a 1000 yard season.

The D-line did a nice enough job. Especially without Aaron Donald. Darryl Render did a solid job filling in. Getting his first start as a freshman.

“I just always had to play within myself,” Render said. “I try to mimic things [Donald] does. I wanted to come in and just not miss a beat with AD out.”

From the looks of things Saturday, it was Render who didn’t miss a beat jumping into college football from the high school ranks.

He said Pitt coaches told him during his recruitment that he would play as a freshman, but getting a start just four games into his career was a bit beyond his expectations.

Plus, early in training camp he faced the additional challenge of moving from defensive end to defensive tackle.

Yet here he is, a few months and almost 30 pounds later (Render said he came into camp around 250 pounds, and is now at 277).

Like most freshmen, he said the biggest difference was the speed of the game and the size of his opponents.

“I’m used to just being the top dog and bullying everyone around, but now I’ve got to work a little harder,” he said.

Playing within himself seems to be one of the things Coach Chryst and the coaches are preaching to all the players. Whether it is not trying to do too much. Or knowing what the assignments are. Even though they are rebooting with a new system, it has been kept to the basics.

“I think we’re all understanding our roles and where we need to be to make catches and make plays,” Shanahan said.

The receiving unit is helping each other out on the field, too. In the third quarter of Saturday’s game, Shanahan caught a pass down the right sideline, and Street delivered a crucial block that allowed Shanahan to get loose for a 77-yard touchdown pass.

“I told [Shanahan] I wanted to beat him in yards, so he came over today and said, ‘Thanks for not being selfish,'” Street joked after the game. “So I had to spring the block and he just had a great run after the catch.”

Shanahan said he felt confident the offense would turn things around after Pitt’s 0-2 start, during which the Panthers averaged just 13.5 points per game. Part of that confidence stems from the approach first-year coach Paul Chryst brought to installing his offense.

“He really simplified things,” Shanahan said. “We keep it pretty basic. We run a lot of the same plays. Their philosophy, our philosophy on that is just to simplify things, do what we do well. It doesn’t matter if the defense knows if it’s coming or not because we have things to beat it.”

No one does that apply to more than with Tino Sunseri.

Sunseri put together a second straight, outstanding effort. He didn’t try to do too much. He was solid and accurate with the overwhelming majority of his throws. He’s still hitting receivers further downfield.

Sunseri completed five passes each to wide receivers Mike Shanahan, who had the longest touchdown reception of his career (77 yards); Devin Street, who also scored; and Saddler, who almost scored, getting stopped at the 1 after a 20-yard gain in the second quarter.

“I wish he would have gotten in the end zone,” Shanahan said, “but we told him he has to get in the weight room a little more.”

The day, however, belonged to Sunseri, who also moved to within 21 yards of fifth place on Pitt’s all-time passing list with 6,446 yards.

The comfort level Street and Shanahan have with this offense probably can’t be overstated. They are both playing with confidence and desire right now. The former was definitely lacking last year. The way the receivers are talking, it is clear how happy they are in this system. Almost giddy.

“We didn’t get too high, we didn’t get too low,” receiver Devin Street said. “We knew what we had to do and we just came out here and played.”

Er, not that one. Let me try again.

The Panthers’ big-play ability showed up again when Sunseri found Shanahan for a 77-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter. Street threw a crushing block that sprung Shanahan for the score.

“I was kind of tired going into that play, but, once Devin threw that block for me, I knew I had to score,” Shanahan said.

One of his wide receivers, Cameron Saddler, said the offense is coming together under Sunseri’s leadership.

“He’s confident in the huddle,” Saddler said. “He’s making sure guys are doing the right thing. That’s what we need out of our quarterback.”

Sunseri spread the wealth against Gardner-Webb. Saddler, Devin Street and Mike Shanahan finished with five receptions each and combined for 331 receiving yards.

Shanahan set a new career high with five catches, 144 yards and two touchdowns. One of these was for 77 yards, making the game 41-10. This surpasses his career-high of 111, which came last week against Virginia Tech.

“There’s a long season left, but it feels great finally seeing some of the hard work that we do in the off-season finally paying off,” Shanahan said.

“He has been playing really well. Tino is confident. Tino might have more confidence than me, and that’s hard to do. I feel like Tino, he’s ready to go every week. Even today when we were in our team meeting before we came to the stadium, everybody’s just, you know, we’re small talking and what not, and Tino just goes, “Hey, let’s lock in.” That’s what we need from him, to be our leader. He looks so confident. He’s confident in the huddle. He’s making sure guys are doing the right thing. That’s what we need out of our quarterback.”

The blowout also allowed Shayne Hale and Dan Mason to actually see some action. And even be statistically relevant. Dan Mason, especially, being out there was something. Hey, Coach Chryst! Can you describe the feeling? Was it “special?” “Moving?” Perhaps, “inspiring?”

“The best part about one of these is we kind of took care of business and also got some guys in (the game),” he said. “It was pretty neat for me to see Dan Mason get in at the end there.

“What he has done and overcome, probably a lot of you guys know more than I do. That’s a pretty neat moment.”

Don’t read too much into the performance.
It’s a “W” period. A game that was boring
for fans ( ok fun) and a game hard for the
players to get excited. Small crowd over
matched opponent. Lets move on at 2-2
and beat the ‘cuse. Then the game w/
Louisville will be meaningful.

I think it is neat we have Paul Chryst as our coach. There are going to be more rough patches this year but overall we are headed in the right direction. One comment, I think the key to the run game lacking was due to fullback play more than anything. This offense depends on that position more than people think.

I hope Chryst pushes hard during this long span between games. While I don’t see the players believing they are invincible, there have been more than enough mistakes made to cost us in close games…kicking, penalties, blind side sacks to name a few.
I expect the Orange to do the same thing…so it is who prepares best and makes the fewest mistakes who will win this game.
Neither team is good enough to overcome their own errors, IMO.

So, to my uneducated eyes, it looked like Gardner Webb was really selling out to stop the run, and the playcalling took advantage of that. Tino hit some nice deep balls, and the TD to Street in particular was a magnificent throw.

I think the running game could have been better sure, but it seemed to me like Pitt did not force the run game, and they took what the defense gave them and scored 55 points in the process. Plus, now opponents actually have film of Sunseri hitting deep balls, which ought to give them something to think about.

I’ll admit I was surprised Pitt did not have more success running the ball, but again it seemed to me like GW’s strategy was to fully commit to stopping the run, which they were only moderately effective at, and dare Tino to beat them, which he was extremely effective at. Heck, it wasn’t a bad strategy considering what we all know about this team.

Best 2 weeks of offense we’ve seen since the 10-3 2009 team or maybe even the 2003 Fitz/Rutherford team. Perhaps we should schedule Gardner Webb on a yearly basis, especially if Ron Dickerson is going to be on the staff. Does Ron have any more sons ?
We only got to witness Dorin for one season, it was much too short.

Since we’ve got the offense humming, I don’t like having an off week regardless of the dings and bumps/bruises. And as Syracuse has an off week too, it gives them a chance to collect themselves after a 1-3 start, albeit with a much tougher non-con schedule than Pitt. Yes Stony Brook is better than Gardner Del Webb. haha

Finally, who is Sam Werner. I played ball with a Kent Werner, it couldn’t be his son, could it ?
lol

I know these schedules are made way in advance (except for the Gardner Webb Game) but somebody doesn’t like Doug Marrone up in Cusie land.

The 5 non-cons
Northwestern, Southern Cal, Minnesota (4-0), and late in the season AT Mizzou (who will prolly need that game to be bowl eligible, as they’re getting pasted so far in the SEC) and the always tuff Stony Brook Seawolves (3-1) of the Big South.
Hey how about that, betcha didn’t know that !
And here’s another, the GW Runnin Bulldogs (as opposed to Sittin Bulldogs) also play in the Big South. And are the league’s perennial doormat.

Hey if the ACC doesn’t work out, we can always move to the Big South (ikr) and dominate !!
lol

@TartanPanther – good call .. GWU definitely had their D-line slanting to cut off blocking angles; LBs in the gaps and a safety up – which is why the deep middle was open and single coverage on the outside .. not counting RG’s 78 yard TD, Graham and Shell were a combined 11 attempts for 13 yards on first down (a usual running down for Pitt) .. whereas Tino was 10 for 13 (w/1 sack) for 213 yards and 2 TDs on first down ..

During the Jackie Sherrill era, in our section of Pitt Stadium, we used to take a poll picking the point spread. We would each put two bucks in the pot and write the number of points we thought Pitt would win by. It wasn’t unusual to write 30 or 35 points on the slip. That was pretty neat!

Was just able to free some time up next weekend and thinking of driving up to Syracuse. Just looked real quick , but it looks like all hotels are pretty much booked. Anyone have any ideas where there may be some availability?

For those of you following YSU season thier #75 in the sagarin rankings ahead of about 40 division 1 programs and they play #55,in same ratings, North Dakota State Sat. The MVC has 5 or 6 teams in the top 25 and combined the conf. has several wins against division 1 programs

It’s even more embarrassing when you just get plain old outplayed, beat down for four quarters without the excuses of penalties, turnovers freak plays, etc. Yeah we just got beat. Lesson learned, don’t take ANYBODY for granted, come to play every game.

Ithaca, as a college town, has some great ethic restuarants. Cornell is on the top of the hill overlooking downtown. The surrounding area (Finger Lakes) will be beautiful this time of year … especially if you’re a (sweet) wine drinker … there are about 75 wineries in the greater area

He is required to sit out a year if he transfers to a D1 school .. the relaxing of the NCAA transfer rules only applies to players who have/do not practice or play prior to the start of the 2013 season.